286 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
probable, however, that the use of this instrument can 
be made general; and indeed with the imperfect know¬ 
ledge which at present prevails in regard to the effects 
occasioned by the insect, we are not prepared to recom¬ 
mend it. The best course, in our opinion, is to keep 
the sheep in good condition, that the circulation of the 
blood may be free, and the secretions natural. This will 
give the animals health and strength, by which they will 
be better enabled to throw off the worms whenever dis¬ 
comfort is experienced from them. 
HINTS FOR THE SEASON. 
Autumn is a favorable part of the year for making im¬ 
provements on the farm. After the hay, the wheat, and 
other small grains have been secured, there is a lapse of 
time before the latter harvest demands attention, which 
furnishes a good opportunity for clearing fields of stumps 
and stones, making fences, improving meadows and 
pastures, reclaiming swamps and wet lands, digging peat 
anil muck for manure, &c. The present season has been 
SQ-dry that wet grounds may be worked on to good ad¬ 
vantage, unless there should soon be heavy rains. 
Moist grass-lands, whether in meadow or pasture, are 
liable to be more or less injured by the growth of bushes, 
rushes, and wild, worthless vegetation of various kinds. 
The most effectual remedy for this is thorough drainage, 
which should therefore be the first object. Bushes had 
better be pulled up root and branch. They generally 
grow in stools, raised a little from the general bed of the 
field, and may be readily torn up with a root-claw, (or 
in default of that, a plow,) to which oxen are attached 
When the bushes are large they should be cut, in order 
to give a chance to get at the roots. 
Tussocks of flat, wild grass, and small knobs, or bunch¬ 
es caused by moles, ants, &c., frequently occur on the 
surface of pastures and meadows. These should be cut 
off. If not too tough, they may be put at once into the 
hog pen or barn-yard, to be wrought into manure; or 
they may be piled in heaps to lay till rotten before being 
used; or the hardest and toughest tussocks may be burnt, 
as soon as they are a little dried, and the ashes spread on 
grass grounds, or used for other crops. They make a 
large quantity of ashes, especially if taken from a mucky 
soil, anil they produce very good effects, (as we have 
pruved,) when spread on grass, turneps, or grain. The 
best mode of burning is to collect the tussocks into piles. 
Commence a fire in the centre, and when a few get well 
on fire, heap on a large quantity. The fire should work 
slowly, with as little flame as possible. 
What is called a bog-hoe, is a proper tool for cutting 
tussocks. They should be ground to a sharp edge, to do 
the work easily and well. We have seen, at the imple¬ 
ment warehouses in Boston, a tool to be drawn by oxen 
or horses, for shaving excrescences from pastures and 
meadows. We have no personal knowledge of its opera¬ 
tion. Will some one who knoics tell us how it works? 
Peat or bog earth, designed for compost, or for spread¬ 
ing on cultivated fields, is much better for being dug some¬ 
time before being used. The action of the air, the frost, 
and the rains, dissipates its sourness, and a partial fermenta¬ 
tion or decomposition takes place, by which it is pulve¬ 
rized, and brought into a good state to be applied to 
plants. The banks of ditches should be hauled to the 
barn-yard, or piled on dry land. If the ground is too 
soft and miry to admit of a team going on it, let the 
muck remain where it is first thrown out till winter, 
when the ground becomes frozen sufficiently to bear a 
yoke of oxen and sled; and then the muck can be easily 
cut into junks and carried off. J 
Peat or muck that has undergone a fermentation mixed 
with ashes and saturated with urine, is one of the best 
manures for gardens and nurseries that can be used, as it 
contains few or no seeds of weeds that will grow on 
dry ground. 
That process of improving land called paring and 
burning, though seldom practiced in this country, we 
feel sure, from what we have seen, might be adopted in 
many cases with excellent advantage. The operation 
consists in cutting a thin slice from the surface of sward 
or old grass lands. The sods are dried and burnt, and 
the ashes spread over the land. It is most beneficial to 
clayey soils and those impregnated with iron—the iron 
being converted by the fire into what is called a peroxide, 
in which state it is harmless to vegetation. 
The advantages of paring and burning are several; it 
destroys the seeds of weeds, and much of the foul growth 
with which the land may be filled; it also destroys many 
insects and their eggs, and furnishes in the ashes and 
calcined earth, a powerful manure, impregnated with 
alkaline salts and carbonaceous matter, which is found 
highly beneficial in correcting the tenacity of clays, and 
converting them into friable loams. 
We are so well satisfied of the advantages of this ope¬ 
ration, that we intend to call attention to it again, giving 
a more particular account of the process and its effects. 
INFLUENCE OF ELECTRICITY ON VEGETATION. 
We have heretofore forborne any remarks on this sub¬ 
ject, believing that sufficient facts have not as yet been 
collected to justify positive conclusions; and knowing 
the avidity with which novelties are sometimes seized 
on, we have been cautious in laying accounts before our 
readers which might tend to lead the unwary astray. 
Among the papers which were read at the late meet¬ 
ing of the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science, was one by Mr. Edward Solly, “ On the In¬ 
fluence of Galvanic Electricity on the Germination of 
Seeds.” In the London Gardeners’ Chronicle, we find a 
synopsis of this paper, from which the following is con¬ 
densed : 
Mr. Solly took a general view of all the experiments 
which have been reported in reference to this subject. 
He began by describing those of Sir H. Davy, and then 
described the recent experiments, giving an account of 
an extensive series at present being made in the gardens 
of the Horticultural Society. 
“ Seeds of barley, wheat, rye, turnep, and radish, were, 
in several different experiments, found to germinate with 
increased rapidity, when exposed to the influence of a 
feeble current of electricity of very low tension, and the 
plants not only came up sooner, but were more healthy 
than others. These experiments certainly appeared de¬ 
cisive in favor of the stimulating effect of electric t\ n 
germination, as distinguished from the mere chemical 
effect produced by electricity; but, on the other hand, a 
number of experiments on other seeds had given quite 
opposite results, proving either that the germination of 
some seeds was retarded, whilst that of others was facili¬ 
tated by electricity; or, that the effects, observed in both 
cases, were merely incidental. Out of a series of 55 ex¬ 
periments on different seeds, 20 appeared in favor of 
electricity, 10 against it, and 25 showed no effect what¬ 
ever; and on carefully counting the whole number of 
seeds up in the entire series, there were found 1250 of 
(he electrified, and 1253 of the non-electrified seeds up. 
In conclusion, Mr. Solly stated that he felt very doubtful 
whether the effects observed were really due to the in¬ 
fluence of electricity. 
“ Professor Henslow regarded this paper important, 
as showing how careful practical men ought to be, in 
arriving at conclusions upon insufficient evidence. Many 
persons believed that electricity exerted an influence on 
vegetation, from the instances of beneficial effects which 
had been brought forward, but they must now be regard¬ 
ed as purely accidental. 
‘‘ Dr. Daubeny stated, that although he had from the 
first doubted the influence of electricity on plants, he 
had, nevertheless, tried experiments, and come to the 
same conclusion as Mr. E. Solly. 
“ Dr. Percy did not think Mr. Solly’s experiments 
conclusive, as to the action of galvanism on the produc¬ 
tiveness. of plants. It was alleged that plants yielded 
more fruit from the action of electricity, but Mr. Solly’s 
experiments only proved that their vegetative functions 
were not more vigorous. 
“ Mr. John Ball believed that electricity exerted a 
constant influence on plants, and he regarded it as an agent 
in determining many of their peculiar forms. He be¬ 
lieved it could be demonstrated that there was an anta¬ 
gonism in the electricity of the cellular and vascular tis- 
